Karin darted through the woods ahead of Kabuto, tracking Orochimaru intently. She knew he could be anywhere: her chakra perception couldn't perceive depth.

"Well?"

"I can't use this thing for depth perception," she replied for the sixth time. Kabuto must really be nervous, she thought to herself. She had never heard Kabuto repeat a question once, let alone five times.

"My God," Tayuya muttered on Kabuto's right side. "Where could he be? We've been searching for hours…"

Kidomaru sighed. "And I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm nervous…"

"Amen," Jiroubou chimed in. "Not to mention hungry…"

"Not me," Tayuya said. "I ate."

"Could we focus?!"

Tayuya sighed. Kabuto was truly on edge, and it visible in more ways than one. "Relax," she said. "Orochimaru will be alright-Karin, is he anywhere near the Akatsuki's hideout?"

"About halfway between us and Akatsuki," the redhead replied, suddenly swerving to the left. "Hurry! We're much closer!"

OOOOOOOOO

Orochimaru was nervous.

He felt like he had been walking in circles for hours now, and so far there was no sign of life. Besides another rabbit that he had eaten. Orochimaru sighed and collapsed against a tree, waiting for something to happen. He knew that he was in trouble: if no one else, Kisame knew where he was, or, at least, the general direction in which he had run. He could probably find him if he tried…

Speak of the devil and he comes for you.

Footsteps sounded from behind Orochimaru, along with the swish of chakra and the pounding of trees being leapt across. He immediately ducked behind a rock, pulling out a kunai and crouching down. He slowed his breathing, waiting for someone to stumble across him.

Suddenly, he was surrounded.

Orochimaru froze up, swallowing hard and bringing one hand up to his mouth, nipping at the skin of his thumb and drawing a line of blood down the tattoo on his arm. He was about to form the seals for a summoning when a voice broke through his fog of panic.

"Orochimaru-sama! Calm down, it's me!"

Orochimaru's head whipped up, and he found himself staring right into the face of-

"Kabuto!"

The genin nodded, and Orochimaru's hands suddenly dropped to his sides. The kunai clattered to the ground, and Orochimaru threw himself into Kabuto's arms. Kabuto returned the embrace, running his hands through Orochimaru's dark hair in a comforting gesture.

"What did they do to you?" he whispered, kissing down on Orochimaru's pale lips. "Sh, sh, sh, what they do to you?" he repeated, kissing him again. Orochimaru eagerly kissed him back, wanting nothing but Kabuto at the moment. His lover deepened the kiss, and Orochimaru found himself, for the hundredth time today, lost.

"Um, hello? Two gay lovebirds who just crushed so many fangirls' dreams?"

Orochimaru jerked away from Kabuto, more from reflex than anything else. "What?" he asked, suddenly the tyrant everyone had always known him as. "You know, it's not polite to stare," he commented, arms still wrapped around Kabuto's neck. Kabuto's hands were settled on each of Orochimaru's soft hips, and neither seemed to be ashamed of their positions.

Karin sighed. "We were worried sick about you, and the first thing you do when we find you is make out? Jeez, Orochimaru-sama, this is the thanks we get for-?"

"Let it go, Karin," Sakon said. "You've always got me."

Karin sighed. "I'm doomed."

"Hey!"

Tayuya glared at the twins, then cautiously approached Orochimaru and Kabuto. "Well, I'm happy for you," she said awkwardly. "Um…here's the part where we go home?"

Orochimaru nodded and let his head fall to Kabuto's chest. "Sure…why not? I'm tired."

"I can tell," Kidomaru said dryly. "So…" He absently swung his hands back and forth, finally swinging them up to rest behind his head. "I guess we go home…?"

"Anticlimactic, don't you think?" Tayuya suddenly said. "I mean, all this to capture him and then-poof! they suddenly let him run off like that? Just a little strange, don't you think?"

"Hm…" Kabuto absently stroked Orochimaru's hair, trying to calm the sannin a bit. "Come to think of it, that is a bit unlikely," he said slowly. "Unless he just snuck out? But there would have been guards…someone knows he got out, and probably a lot of people. I have no doubt in my mind that there are countless security cameras in that place, and I'll be damned if they weren't put to good use."

Karin nodded. "But I can't feel any chakra…and masking it doesn't hide it from me."

Kabuto sighed and placed a gentle kiss on Orochimaru's forehead. "It just doesn't add up," he said, and sighed again. "Give me a second to think here." While he thought, his hand continued to move down Orochimaru's silken hair, his other hand remaining steady in the sannin's lower back. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind, almost all of them having to do with Orochimaru in some way. Why did Akatsuki take him to begin with? How could they just let him slip away like that? What had they done to him?

Kabuto suddenly gasped. "They didn't take him because they wanted him," he said. "They took him to encourage him to come back!"

Tayuya raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"Every time the Akatsuki took Orochimaru-sama, think about what happened afterwards!" Kabuto said quickly. "Either he went back of his own free will, or he was drawn there! They must have some reason for doing this, otherwise they wouldn't have let him go so easily! They must be extremely confident in whatever they did to him, otherwise they wouldn't have just let him go."

Tayuya seemed to turn this over in her mind for a moment. "You're right," she said. "And the last time he was there, he was drawn! Oh, God, that means-!"

Kabuto nodded. "Our worst fears have come true," he said. "They've got Orochimaru-sama on a leash, and they can pull it whenever they feel like it. But…" Kabuto exhaled quietly, not even sure if he wanted to say it at this point. "They probably didn't count on interference at this point," he continued in a whisper. "If they truly counted on interference, they would have done more to protect against it. So unless they've laid some hidden trap, they don't really count on someone else cutting off his collar."

"What are you saying?" Kidomaru asked, crossing his arms.

"I'm saying that we need to severe whatever ties Orochimaru-sama has to Akatsuki, and we need to do it fast," he said. "Otherwise, they'll just pull him back to them and either keep him…or break him."

Sakon shuddered and placed a hand on Orochimaru's shoulder. "He's already fragile," he murmured, his one hand tracing small circles across Orochimaru's back. "He's worn out from just this…they might have done it again," he said, raising his eyes to Kabuto. Kabuto shook his head.

"No, the side effects would be worse if they had used Tsukiyomi on him," he said slowly. "He's just a little traumatized, so it shouldn't have been that bad…well, we might as well get moving," he said. "If there's a trap that we're going to spring, we better get started."

OOOOOOOOO

Orochimaru almost fell asleep on the way back.

His golden eyes were closing as Kabuto carried him into the village, and he was fully asleep by the time they reached his room. Kabuto set him down on the bed and left Tayuya and Sakon with him, then went off to find information on binding jutsus.

Kabuto went to Orochimaru's library first. The man had an incredible library: every shelf was filled to the ceiling with scroll after scroll, all penned to the last inch of paper. Kabuto ran down the line of shelves, checking the tags on each scroll as he went. He was looking for one particular scroll: the scroll on the binding Itachi had set on Orochimaru's hand.

Not even Orochimaru himself knew that the scroll had existed until Kabuto had done some research. Then Kabuto himself had written the scroll and inserted it into Orochimaru's library; in case it was ever needed. Now, Kabuto yanked that very scroll off the top shelf, using a ladder, and sat down on the floor with it.

From the deepest depths of Tsukiyomi lies a dark binding only to be used in the most desperate of situations. Few know this jutsu, and even fewer have ever used it. Uchiha Itachi is the only one to ever have implemented this jutsu successfully, and he used it to bind Orochimaru to him.

Kabuto skimmed down over the rest of the page. He was looking for one paragraph in particular…there!

When Itachi severed Orochimaru's hand, the sannin had lost more than a hand. He had lost blood: blood which Itachi used to permanently bind him to himself. Using Orochimaru's blood, Itachi put Orochimaru into a living nightmare. The sannin was brutally stabbed with nails to be held down, and tortured for three days while pinned down so. On the last day in the last hour, Itachi cursed Orochimaru forever, cutting off his left hand and staining his hands with the blood of Orochimaru forever. Orochimaru lost his freedom and fled the Akatsuki, and has been hunted by them ever since. They use the binding to keep a hold on him, and it is through Itachi that they do so.

Kabuto exhaled and rerolled the scroll, carefully sliding it back into its spot on the wall. He climbed back down the ladder, set his feet on the floor-

And was almost knocked over by Tayuya.

"Kabuto-sensei!" she cried, catching him as he stumbled back. "There's something wrong with Orochimaru-sama, come quick!"

"Tayuya, calm down!" Kabuto said, running next to her as the girl darted out of the library. "Tell me exactly what happened to him."

"He…he just started tossing and turning all of a sudden," Tayuya stammered. "Like he was in pain…but there was nothing really wrong, so we thought maybe he was just having a nightmare. We left him be, but then he started sweating, and shaking, and now he's screaming! Sakon's trying to wake him up now, but I don't know what happened!"

Kabuto pushed open the door to Orochimaru's room, listening to every word Tayuya said. "I think I know what's wrong," he said, rushing to Orochimaru's side. Sakon and Ukon both were struggling to hold him down.

"He's completely conscious, but not at the same time!" Sakon panted, grunting with the effort of restraining Orochimaru. "He's awake, but he's in too much pain to know what's going on around him! I know he can hurt himself like this, but honestly, I don't know what to do!"

"Let go of him," Kabuto said sternly. "You're making it worse. Both of you, back off."

Sakon and Ukon jumped back, releasing Orochimaru and leaping back away from him. Orochimaru let out another scream of agony and continued to writhe in pain, sweat pouring down his face. Kabuto sat down next to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Orochimaru-sama."

No response.

"Orochimaru-sama, wake up. What you feel isn't real; it's just a dream. Come on, wake up…Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru's golden eyes flashed open and he sat bolt upright, gasping for breath and fighting tears. Kabuto took him into his arms, stroking his hair and quieting the snake.

"Hush, Orochimaru-sama," he whispered, one arm encircling the sannin's back. "Sh, sh, sh…relax, it's okay…"

As Orochimaru lay in his lap, Kabuto raised a hand to wipe away a set of tears that had fallen from Orochimaru's eyes. He could hear Orochimaru whispering words that were hardly familiar even to Kabuto, who was used to the sannin's eccentricities and recognized the language as one of the snakes.

"Orochimaru-sama, something I can understand?"

Orochimaru sat up, wiping away the rest of the tears and bringing his left hand to Kabuto's shoulder.

"I…I don't want to know if that was real or not," he finally said, looking away. "You look, I can't…"

"Tell me what happened," Kabuto said softly, taking Orochimaru's hand between his and supporting his wrist. "That way I'll know…"

"The nails," Orochimaru whispered. "Everything was the same, except…" he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "When he went to cut it off, instead, he said, 'You are mine' and he…it was cold, then hot, and then, it just hurt…it-it left a mark…"

Orochimaru's words were lapsing into snake again, which one Kabuto didn't know. But he got the general message: instead of cutting off Orochimaru's hand, Itachi had branded him. And Orochimaru was too afraid to see if the brand was real or not. Kabuto shook his head, pushing up Orochimaru's sleeve.

"Orochimaru-sama, it was just a dream," he said, but he hardly believed his own words. No way would Orochimaru be screaming in pain if it was just a dream-their situation was getting dire if Itachi could do this to Orochimaru. "Sh, it's okay…see, there's nothing…there…"

Kabuto turned over Orochimaru's arm and stopped dead.

There, on Orochimaru's forearm, was the Uchiha fan, seared into his flesh like a fresh brand.

A/N: Kind of a creepy chapter…anyway, review, or you won't get the next one!!